VANCOUVER – A loud home crowd helped give the No. 7 seed, and host UBC extra motivation, and on the court they got it done, winning three sets in a row to beat No. 6 seed Manitoba 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-14) on Saturday night in U SPORTS national semi-final action.
The game was the first between the two at nationals since 2014, when the Herd swept the T-Birds in the gold medal game. It's also the first time UBC has beaten Manitoba this year, after Manitoba upset their pacific rival in two games in the Canada West quarterfinals.
The hosts will now face No. 1 seed Trinity, looking for their ninth U SPORTS championship. The Bisons will play for bronze tomorrow at 2 pm PT against Dalhousie. Catch all the action on CBC's YouTube channel.
Manitoba won the first set with a diverse attack. Setter
Katreena Bentley dished the ball well, with three different players recording a kill on Manitoba's first three points, and she had eight assists and four digs overall.
Despite trailing 11-7 at one point, the Bisons stayed calm, scoring four in a row, including a
Raya Surinx kill down the pipe that was set up by her own dig.
Ella Gray completed the run with a vicious line shot from the left.
Andi Almonte gave Manitoba their first lead at 14-13 on a solo block, and while UBC was able to tie the game, they never led again. A solo block from
Brenna Bedosky (one kill, two assisted blocks, one dig, one solo block in the set), along with a spectacular dig later on helped the Herd win the set by five.
Trailing by one, UBC pushed back. In the second, UBC's Erika Vermette tallied her side's third service ace of the set, which was part of a run that saw the T-Birds score six of eight points after trailing 4-3.
They didn't trail for the rest of the set, and kept Manitoba on their toes all game long on serve-receive, tallying 13 aces compared to five for the Bisons. This was the story going forward, as Manitoba struggled to side out their opponent consistently.
"They served the ball well, and put us in trouble on receive," said Bisons head coach
Ken Bentley. "We were just out of system too much in that match. Credit to them, they did a really good job at the service line. We just didn't hold up well enough there."
Jayde Robertson led the way with four aces, 14 kills and seven assisted blocks, while the Herd were led by Surinx's 14 kills. Bentley was named Player of the Game for Manitoba, after recording 37 assists and ten digs, while
Ella Gray had ten kills, seven digs and an assisted block.
A back and forth third set was won in the latter stages by UBC.
Surinx had five kills, an ace and an assisted block, but six aces from the T-Birds, including two in a row with the score 21-16 took the wind out of Manitoba's sails in what was a largely a two-point game up to that point.
Manitoba didn't score a point the rest of the set, and only scored once more after a service error made it 17-15 for UBC.
"I thought our fight was unbelievable," said Bentley.
"Even though we were down, we just kept scraping and got real close in that third set. We were just inches away from making that a real game in that third set. That was a tough one, because we were just nipping back there. That's the way it goes."
Manitoba led early in the fourth, including 7-5 off a sprawling dig from Bentley that set up Almonte for a cross-court dime from the left, but once again UBC's service pressure was the dagger.
An ace from Brynn Pasin, the team's 12
th of the game made it 9-8 for the hosts, and they didn't trail the rest of the way.
